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The Sodastream "cage" exhibit in New York. Courtesy Sodastream.

"It will take a lot more than a letter from a lawyer to shut me up," says Sodastream CEO Daniel Birnbaum.

Sodastream (NASDAQ:SODA), the Israel-based company that manufactures home soda-making products, has received a cease-and-desist letter from The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) in South Africa. The letter was in relation to an outdoor marketing campaign, which Sodastream refers to as "the cage." The exhibit features cans and bottles that Sodastream employees collect from dump sites which are placed in a giant cage used to illustrate how many bottles and cans a family uses over the course of either three or five years. Coca-Cola South Africa's letter specifically mentions an exhibit located in South Africa's O.R. Tambo International Airport, but Sodastream has more than 20 such exhibits across the globe, including some touring ones that have recently been featured in Times Square and Union Square in New York City.

The letter cited infringing upon trademark rights and derogatory advertising as grounds for possible legal action. UPDATE: You can now view the original letter here. (A tip of my hat to the person who posted this on Imgur)

"We think it is absolutely ridiculous," Birnbaum says. "If they claim to have rights to their garbage, then they should truly own their garbage, and clean it up. Instead of getting a thank you for cleaning up, we’re getting a lawyer’s letter."

In an email correspondence, Birnbaum also wrote: "We find it incredulous that Coke is now re-claiming ownership of the billions of bottles and cans that litter the planet with their trademarks. In that case, they should be sued in the World Court for all of the damage their garbage is causing."

Sodastream went public in late 2010 and has been steadily increasing its share of the global soda market since. It has relied on campaigns focusing on environmental sustainability, health (Sodastream products use natural sugar or Stevia), and ease-of-use. Coca-Cola's cease and desist letter therefore threatens Sodastream's ability to communicate a key component of its value proposition.

Coca-Cola South Africa provided the following statement:

“Coca-Cola South Africa has registered its complaint in the interest of protecting Coca-Cola trademarks against any infringements in the South African market. Coca-Cola is a leader in recycling and sustainable packaging as demonstrated by our aggressive goal to collect the equivalent of 50 percent of the bottles and cans we sell globally by 2015.

“Coca-Cola South Africa is a member and founder of PETCO, South Africa's PET recycling company, and is involved in the collection and responsible disposal of our PET plastic bottle post-consumer consumption. It is also a partner of Collect-a-Can, which has one of the highest beverage can recovery rates in the world. In 2011, Coca-Cola South Africa launched PlantBottle packaging, which is PET plastic made from up to 30 percent plant material and remains 100% recyclable.”

This isn't the first time that the small company (Sodastream's market cap is less than 1% the value of Coke's) has dealt with the soft-drink behemoth. Roughly one and a half years ago, shortly after Sodastream entered the US market, the companies worked together to redesign the packaging on Sodastream's cola-flavor syrup to make sure it was markedly different enough from Coca-Cola's, according to Birnbaum. But this time around, the good feelings have dissipated.

"I’m not complying," Birnbaum says.

What do you think, readers? Do Coca-Cola's rights extend to empty, disposed-of bottles and cans?